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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL KICKOFFJuly 18, 2018David CutcliffeJoe Giles-HarrisDaniel JonesCharlotte, North Carolina Q. Daniel, eight of the top nine rushing teams in the ACC have running quarterbacks. Last year you ran the ball very effectively in some games; in other games you didn't run the ball at all. What are your thoughts about the role of a running quarterback in the Duke offense? When is it important and when do you not run? DANIEL JONES: Yeah, you know, I think that's a huge part of our offense. I think kind of as you watch college football the past few years, it's kind of trended toward that, where a running quarterback is a necessary part of the offense, and I'm certainly willing to do that. I look forward to those opportunities. I think that's a week-in and week-out game plan thing that the coaches are working on, and whenever that opportunity presents itself, I'm certainly willing and enjoy doing that. I look forward to doing that again this year, and I think we'll have plenty of help in the running game with Brittain and some of those guys. So really looking forward to a strong running game. Q. What are your thoughts this year on getting to play in Death Valley and go against Clemson's front four? DANIEL JONES: Yeah, I mean, that'll be a fun game. Really looking forward to that at the end of the season. I think it will be a big opportunity for us. But first and foremost, we're getting ready for camp here in the next couple weeks and then starting the season off with Army. I think when you get to that point in the season, we'll be prepared. We'll have gone through a lot together, and certainly in a good position to finish the season strong. Q. What you can say about the weapons what you're going to have this season, some of those wide receivers coming in and just what you think about the table of guys that you'll have to throw to this year? DANIEL JONES: Yeah, it's certainly an exciting position to be in as a quarterback with the receivers we have coming back and a lot of the same faces in the same positions to make explosive plays, make plays down the field, and I'm looking forward to that opportunity, for sure. I think this summer, growing with those guys, we've been able to, I think, take the next step with a lot of them. And older guys that kind of know what's going on and know what we expect has made it easier for the younger guys to step in and get going. Looking forward to finishing these last couple weeks before camp, and then obviously there's a huge amount of growth to be done during camp, so looking forward to that for sure. Q. Comment on what confidence means to you, three wins during the season last year, knowing that you're the guy coming into this year, and it's your second time back in your hometown at kickoff. So there must be this confidence that's absolutely screaming through you? DANIEL JONES: Yeah, I think as a team it was important for us to kind of find a way to right the ship and finish the season strong last year. I think we've talked about a lot of people in the same positions last year went through that kind of correction toward the end of the season. That was valuable experience for all of us to go through that, and I think that'll be big for us going into next season. You know, as a quarterback, you learn a lot in that situation, and being in a similar position this off-season as I was last season, you continue to grow, continue to learn, and how you develop yourself, but also try to bring along the guys around you. Q. You brought up a couple minutes ago Brittain Brown, just what you can say about what his ceiling is as a running back in this offense? DANIEL JONES: Yeah, I think his ceiling is huge. I think I've been fortunate to play with some great running backs since I've been there, and he's certainly not dropping off at all from those guys. He's the complete package. He's physical, he's a big guy, he can run through people, but also run around people and make people miss. You know, like they say, a running back is a quarterback's best friend, and having a strong running game will be big. I think the offensive line and seeing those guys up front, if it's as talented a group as I think we have, and watching those guys kind of grow together and pushing the running game to where I think it can go, this year will be a lot of fun. Q. What do you really like about your throwing game at this point? DANIEL JONES: You know, I think we have just kind of a multitude of weapons all over the field. I think we have people who can shake it up and make people miss in small spaces, maybe some of the shorter stuff, and I think we have guys who can really push it down the field with their speed and kind of more long-distance speed. And I think that's exciting as an offense, just how many different ways we can throw the football, and we'll continue to grow with that throughout camp and throughout the season. Q. We talked about confidence. Hopefully you're confident in the way that you answer this. Describe Coach Cut in one word. DANIEL JONES: I would say probably steady. I think he's very consistent in how he coaches us, how he approaches us. And as a quarterback, I'm definitely in a very fortunate position to be learning from him and all his experiences, his wealth of knowledge. But probably one word I'd just use is steady in his approach to each one of us and how he coaches us. Q. Joe, to look at the co-defensive coordinators on the team, just what you can say about Ben and Matt and what they've done with this defense and kind of going into the season, you're takeaways from this because you've excelled on the team last year going into this year especially. JOE GILES-HARRIS: I think they've done a great job. I mean, we've known Coach G and Coach Albert for a long time now. They recruited most of us, and they're consistent, and we know what they expect and they know what we expect. So we're ready to go. We'll hit the ground running come spring ball. We're excited for what they have. They're using their own little twists on the defense, so we're excited about it. Q. I wanted to ask you a little bit about Jeremy McDuffie, how his off-season has been going and if you think he'll be full go for training camp? JOE GILES-HARRIS: Yeah, Jeremy Duffie, he's a warrior. He's ready to go. We're glad to have him back. He's a big time player for us, and I'm excited to see him back on the field with us. It's been exciting. Q. How would you describe your leadership style? JOE GILES-HARRIS: I'm more of a lead by example kind of guy. I'm not the most vocal person out there. I don't like to get in people's faces. But I try to do the right thing and try to have people watch me and follow me, and that's the biggest thing I've been focused on this off-season, trying to become a better leader. Q. The schedule last year was a little bit streaky, obviously a four-game win streak to start, three-game win streak to finish the season, not the best of times in the middle. How do you reconcile that as you get ready for this season? JOE GILES-HARRIS: You take away what we had last season. At one point we were at the top of the mountain, you're feeling good about yourselves, and next thing you know you're trying to crawl out of a ditch. The lessons you learned from crawling out of that ditch and how we finished the season is something we've taken full advantage of. We have to be consistent, we have to be humble, and we have to be ready to go, and that's the biggest thing. Learning from those mistakes and knowing what to do to avoid that this year. Q. Just curious with your defense sort of getting some preseason hype, for lack of a better term, what's your take on this defense and how good can it possibly be this year? JOE GILES-HARRIS: I think we're a really talented group this year. We're excited about it. We've got a lot of guys back. We had a D-line that was phenomenal last year. Our linebackers are back. We're ready to go, and we've got a secondary who's explosive, fun, fast and exciting to watch. The sky's the limit for this group. We're excited. You get a little bit of noise talked about you, but that doesn't really mean much until you have to get out there and play football. Everything sounds nice in the off-season, but until you get on the field and start playing -- we look at last year and we did a lot of great things last year, but we want to be better than last year. We're a different group, and we're excited about where we can go. Q. Joe, for a number of games you guys got stops, forced turnovers, got punts, had a great deal of success. What do you feel like you can do better this year defensively, and what do you have to do better to achieve your goals? JOE GILES-HARRIS: Definitely I think we can be more consistent. There were games where, like you said, we were getting stops, we were playing well, but there was also moments in games where we had mental breakdowns and we beat ourselves more than we let somebody else beat us, and that's our thing. We want to be consistent. If you're going to beat Duke's defense, you'd better give it your whole shot. That's our goal. That's what we think about. You never want to beat yourself. So I think being more consistent, doing the little things, paying attention to film a little bit more, knowing the playbook a little bit better, I think that will all pay off for us. Q. Coach Cutcliffe, what you can say weathering some of those storms you spoke about a few minutes ago, how has he helped you to improve as a player and how does he help this team to close that gap with the strength in the beginning of the season, strength at the end but struggling in the middle? How do you get rid of that and what has Coach Cut done to help you do that? JOE GILES-HARRIS: Well, Coach Cut has seen it all. He's coached a lot of different places and he's seen it all at Duke. Coach Cut is consistent. There was never a moment whether we were winning or we were losing where Coach Cut was different. He always had the same mentality coming into Tuesday morning practice and the same mentality coming into Saturday. It was going to be hard work, hard work, hard work. I think the biggest thing we saw which really helped us in those last three games was how consistent he actually was. People say, I'm consistent, I'm this, I'm that, but he showed up day in and day out and he worked his butt off until he felt that we were ready to go. He did everything in his power, and when you see your coach doing that, it raises your elevation. You elevate yourself to start doing that the same way, so I think that was the biggest thing for us. And he was there and he was always encouraging. It was never you guys this, you guys that. He took the loss upon himself even though for the most part some of them were on us, and he helped weather the storm that way. It was just being there, seeing his face and seeing how confident he was each week just helped us get out of where we were. Q. You've watched Daniel go through his reads and his progressions over the last couple of years. What do you like most about his evolution as a quarterback? JOE GILES-HARRIS: What I like most about Daniel is he's just, as I said about Coach Cut, he's consistent. He's a consistent leader. He's a good leader, and he's our leader. The best thing about him is he's a smart kid who works his butt off in the film room day in and day out. There's days where I will be leaving our facilities, and Daniel has been in there after school or whatever, Daniel has been in there since like 8:00 in the morning and it's like 10:00 at night and he's still watching film. You kind of look at him and you're saying, hey, how much are you going to watch, how much can you get. It's always a little bit more. He never short ends anything, he never backdoors anything. He always gives his all, and that's the best thing about him. He's a student of the game, and he's one of the best there is. Q. Joe says you've seen everything; is that true? DAVID CUTCLIFFE: Well, when it comes to 43 years of coaching football, I'd have to say just one word: Yes. Q. How has Jeremy's off-season gone and what's his prognosis for camp? DAVID CUTCLIFFE: He has worked diligently coming off that surgery. I can't say enough about our people in physical therapy and the people in our training room. But he's got to put the work in. He's explosive right now. He looks really good. He's healthy. I had a conversation with him yesterday, and I think he appreciates what he's got in front of him more than ever because of what was taken away from him a year ago. Q. There's a tendency in our business, I think, to look at returning starters. In your offensive line you've got three you have to replace, and yet Daniel, who should know, says this is the most talented offensive line that he's played behind. From your point of view, what's more important maybe than games started, not just for the offensive line but for a team as a whole? DAVID CUTCLIFFE: Well, I think when your quarterback can say that confidently, he believes in those young people. They believe in him. I do think that's what -- everybody talks about their team's chemistry. Chemistry is only built through being great teammates, so that's the most critical thing we do starting in January. You come back from a bowl victory hopefully, but you've got a whole brand new football team. You do have to replace starters. But if you've got a good football program, it's not done with people who haven't been around, that they don't know each other, they don't know what's required from them. I will say this: You're asking about our offensive line, I think Coach Jim Bridge has done a tremendous job. He took our offensive line in preparation for the bowl game, and that's why we continued that, and I hired him as the offensive line coach. I'm excited to see where we can get to. Q. With the reinstatement of Austin Parker, does that give your offense a bigger sense of confidence to finish drives? DAVID CUTCLIFFE: Yeah, I think you hopefully always finish a drive with a kick. Anything else is not so good. You've got a guy that's both place-kicked and punted. Those plays, people forget that a punt is an offensive play. It's a play that can average more than any play you've got. I think his teammates -- and Joe and Daniel are actually roommates of Austin. He could bring a lot to this football team. He's very fortunate to be where he is right now. He knows that. His maturity, his growth could impact the 2018 team. Q. Joe had spoken about you being that model of consistency and seeing that every single day. When you were going through the ebb and flow of the season last season, what did you see from the team, because they looked to you to be that consistent voice. What did you see from them when you looked back to them? DAVID CUTCLIFFE: I'm going to go back to the Sunday after we lost to Army. We had become a 4-6 football team. They say people are measured when your back's to the wall. Well, they intended to be a ball team when we started the process. We had a great meeting. This team never quit working. So what they were able to do, knowing what was in front of them, having their backs to the wall, and I'm surprised they didn't mention -- it's probably the best team meeting I've ever been a part of. Certainly I believe it was maybe the best -- it wasn't in full pads, but best football practice I've had in my career, that night, that Sunday night after that Army game. I slept so much better the early part of that week because the preparation continued. If you're not consistent, not only -- and this is what I love about our strength coach Noel Durfey. These guys, the demands are consistent. We try not to get mad and be raising cane about something. We try to challenge them properly every day. So from January to December, I hope our demands are the most consistent in all of college football, not just from staff but from the players themselves, and that's a big part of climbing out of a ditch, as they called it. Q. Mark Gilbert had a terrific year. He of course was a two-sport athlete at Terry Sanford High School in Fayetteville. What part did his basketball in the success he had at Duke so early? DAVID CUTCLIFFE: That state championship team he played on, he was the point guard. That's kind of how he plays corner. He commands the court, which in football is his third, his quarter, his whatever we're asking him to do. Being a point guard means you've got great vision. You have great anticipation. Mark has a lot of athleticism. He's long. He's got a lot of skill physically. But he also has a great mind and great eyes, which is what it takes to play corner, as well. Q. You talk about being in this business for 40-some-odd years. In July every year, what gets you excited the most about what the upcoming season is going to be bringing? DAVID CUTCLIFFE: When you see what these young people do -- I come in early still in the summer, and I'll come out of my workout, and we have a 7:00 a.m. workout group in the summer, and they're in there four days a week. And I just watch them work in that weight room. The energy and the challenging of each other and the competitiveness, you know, I think we should celebrate young people like that that are willing to do that with their summers. So as I look at the team in July, it energizes me to give them my best. That's what my job really is is to give the players the best opportunity to win, which means I've got to give them my very best. Q. You've talked about being around football a long time, and obviously a big issue is the safety and the concerns and changes in rules. What do you do differently? And over your time in football, what has changed as far as looking at concussions differently or other injuries? DAVID CUTCLIFFE: Yeah, I think it's all injuries. I've certainly, through decade after decade after decade, literally, seen it change, and it's been necessary and it's been good. We've learned how to coach differently. The numbers have dropped that we're allowed to have. We used to have 200 people on the practice field. You could get a lot of reps and a lot of different things. We're not out there very well. Besides just managing head injury, you've got to manage heat illness. This is a generation that's never known anything about air-conditioning. I grew up in the state of Alabama without air-conditioning, but I think heat is an issue. They grow up with a delete button in their hand, caller ID. They turn you off. So we've learned how to practice more effectively and quicker. We're going to continue, if we're smart, to see the game morph. We don't have to ruin the game, we don't have to put it where we don't recognize it as football. A lot of people have asked me about the kickoff, both at the NFL level and the collegiate level. I think we've already admitted we've got an issue. I think there's a way to lose that play without losing a competitive part of the game, which the onside kick or the things you need. But I'm excited to see what the future brings as opposed to these people that want to act like it's doomsday for football. God bless football. A good friend of mine named Peyton Manning ended his retirement speech with that very line. He played a long time and took risks with his health, and he still would tell you -- and I know he had a lot of success. I didn't have a great deal of success as a player, had some, and as a player I would say, God bless football. Q. It seems to me you have pretty good depth at tight end. What comfort is it when you're in a 3rd and medium or goal line situation to have somebody like Daniel or Davis to throw the football to? DAVID CUTCLIFFE: I think we've got the best depth we've had at Duke, and I'll think about it quickly, but I think it's the best depth I've ever had at tight end. Daniel Helm, boy, does he look good, and our guys are go-to guys. They're situational guys, but they're go-to guys. I think one of the things you'll see with the tight ends is you'll expand that role. It won't just be goal line and 3rd downs. I think we've got to get to the ball first down. That's one of the things I like about this team. You asked earlier about the weapons around Daniel. I think we can run the ball, but I also think when it looks at our receivers, people that are going to catch the ball, we've got three senior receivers and two senior tight ends, and we've got backs that can run routes and catch the ball. I'm anxious to get started and see what we can accomplish in that regard. Q. You had spoken about the changes in football over the years. Coaching as long as you have and the recruiting side of things with the early signing period now, social media, verbal commits, sometimes words mean nothing anymore. How have you had to grow as a coach and kind of evolve with the culture of knowing that everything, like you said, is fast, it's here and now, there's a delete button, and you can obviously see a lot of things that are going on. A kid might say they're coming to play for Duke, and you go on Twitter and no, they're not. So how have you handled that? DAVID CUTCLIFFE: I think the first thing I tell young coaches in the recruiting process is let's not forget to respect the young people. It's not their fault, and it's not necessarily a good trend for them. You've got to quit thinking about yourself. When I hear people talk about wanting change in our profession, they talk about our profession. I think we'd better remember that the student-athletes are the reason we have a job. The very thing you just said, young man will commit 100 percent and parents jump in there, and all of a sudden -- well, I just want to go visit. I'm 100 percent committed. It's no different than if you are engaged to be married and you tell your spouse-to-be that I'm getting married but I want to go on three dates. Let me tell you how long you're going to be engaged. Ten seconds maybe. But I think -- I don't have all the answers. I think we've got to remain scholastic particular in football. My meaning of that, we've got to coach and recruit at the same time. That's okay, we've done it forever. Let's get out of the summers being too critical. I don't like the seven or seven stuff. I don't like the gurus that snatch kids and start marketing them physically or otherwise. I think we've got to go into high schools, we've got to honor the high school coaches, which they're not loving this early, early, early stuff. I even had one coach tell me that a father -- because the kid committed, said, Coach, we're not going to play his senior year because I don't want him to get hurt. Wow. I think there's a way around it. I don't want a kid to commit to us that I don't know, and it happens occasionally, they will decommit, which is not really a word. I don't want to contribute to this. I make it hard for them to commit, believe it or not. That's what I think about it. Q. Every game is an opportunity, every game is unique in its own way. Opening up on Friday night of Labor Day Weekend, national television, against a team that has a little bit of emotional memory for your squad, tell us what that Friday night is going to mean. DAVID CUTCLIFFE: I think it's going to be awesome. When they came to us about television and moving it from Saturday to Friday night, I just think it's going to be the right atmosphere. Army West Point had a 10-win season. They're a great football team right now. Listen, if you don't know this, they won 10 games and threw 24 passes for the season. So you think we're going to be a little bruised after that ballgame? They're a very physical opponent. It's going to make us better in August. And regardless of the outcome, I think we're going to go in there and play really well. We're going to come out of there a better football team. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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